Reducing and roughing tools



June 30, 1970 H; A. IMHOF 3,517,462

nnnucme Am) ROUGHING TOOLS Filed Feb. 1, 1968 a Sheets-Sheet 1 InveniorHerman A. [mizaf -By his Aizorney June 30, H. A. IMHQF nanucme ANDnoueume TOOLS Filed Feb. 1, 1968 z Sheets-Sheet z 4 7 W x V V/Z//////\\\H f5 \H/I 2% United States Patent O 3,517,462 REDUCING AND ROUGHINGTOOLS Herman A. Imhof, Hamilton, Mass, assignor to USM uforporation,Flemington, N.J., a corporation of New ersey Filed Feb. 1, 1968, Ser.No. 702,283 Int. Cl. B24b 9/00 U.S. Cl. 51-128 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE A tool for simultaneously guiding and reducing the edge of athin piece of material comprising a driven rotary tapered wheel or diskhaving a particulate abrasive surface and having spaced therefrom on thesame shaft a free wheeling rotary disk which guides the piece ofmaterial being reduced.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Machines have heretofore been used forbeveling or skiving the margin a shoe sole or part thereof in order toproduce a thin edge which gives the finished shoe an appearance oflightness. Reduction of thickness is also desirable in order to renderportions of a shoe sole or other material more flexible. In such a caseit is preferable that the reduced portion or scarf be at an angle to theface of the sole thereby allowing a more uniform bend.

It is considered desirable that the opposite edges of the shank portionof a shoe sole be materially thinner than the normal thickness of thesole in order to give flexibility, to permit a superior finish and tocause a light appearance in the completed shoe. To this end, theopposite edges of the shank of the sole are sometimes beveled or skivedat a considerable angle.

Not only does the beveled edge or scarf result in greater flexibility,lighter appearance and a better bond but also a stronger bond. Thestronger bond between the shoe and sole results because the sole moreeasily follows the contours of the shoe bottom with less memory andtherefore the adhesive is under less continuous stress from the solememory.

The present invention contemplates a tool for use in preparing a shoesole which will, without close operator attention, not only skive andreduce the edge of a sole but produce a roughened surface ready for theapplication of adhesive.

The use of a rapidly rotating tool which has grit deposited thereon ofsufficient size to remove the desired material from a workpiece on asingle pass will naturally result in a surface which is rough to bothsight and touch. The rough surface is desirable in that it provides asuperior bonding surface and in the case of a shoe sole a resultantsuperior shoe.

Many of the machines used prior to the present invention have requiredthe sole to be hand fed under a knife whereas the present inventioncontemplates a tool which not only reduces the edge portion of a solebut also requires no operator attention in that the angle of reduction,ie the scarf angle is incorporated into the tool and the tool containsits own material guide means.

One object of the invention is to provide a tool whereby a rigid orsemirigid piece of material may be beveled or reduced at a given anglewhile being guided by the tool.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a tool which hasan abrasive surface which will reduce and rough the margin of a shoesole without becoming clogged with the removed material.

In accordance with these objects and as a feature of the presentinvention, there is provided a tool for reducing the margins ofsemirigid material which comprises an abrasive surface upon a drivenwheel or disk and a guiding disk spaced therefrom for holding thesemirigid material against the abrasive surface.

As another feature of this invention, there is provided a tool whichreduces or skives the margin of semirigid material at a predeterminedangle and to a predetermined distance from the edge of the material. Thetool leaves slight ridges and grooves which run parallel to the edge ofthe material allowing the material to be bent more easily along linesgenerally parallel to the edge of the material and which receiveadhesive more readily. When the inventive tool is used upon a shoe sole,the sole has less resistance to conforming to the shoe bottom thanheretofore when with many commercially available tools, the reducingleft slight ridges which ran generally perpendicular to the edge of theshoe.

The particular feature which leaves the ridges and grooves is the shapeof the tool. It is contemplated in the invention that the contactbetween the tool and the material reduced be as a plane tangent to afrustum of a cone. The desired contact may be achieved by having eitherthe cutting surface or the guiding surface for the workpiecefrustoconical in shape.

The above and other features of the invention including various noveldetails, construction and combinations of parts will now be moreparticularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings andpointed out in the claims.

It will be understood that the particular tool embodying the inventionis shown by way of illustration only and not as a limitation of theinvention. The principles and features of this invention may be employedin various and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope ofthe invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an illustrative tool embodying theinvention with the edge of a partially reduced shoe sole in the positionit assumes during roughing;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view through an alternative embodiment of thesubject invention; and

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the illustrative tool of FIG. 2 with the guidedisk partially broken away.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As can be seen in the figures,the reducing tool comprises a lower disk or wheel 4 rigidly connected toa driven shaft 6 and having a plurality of cutting particles 8 (FIG. 1)on its upper beveled surface 9. The particles 8 deposited upon thereducing surface 9 of the disk 4 can be of any desired size but when thetool is used to reduce shoe soles, it has been found that tungstencarbide particles of US. Standard screen size 30+40 are the mostdesirable. This size particle adequately reduces the margin of the sole,leaves ridges enabling ease in con formity with the shoe bottom, aroughness adequate for bonding and yet a smooth appearing finished shoe.

The shaft is connected to any known rotating power source (not shown).Radially extending in the beveled surface 9 of the disk 4 is a pluralityof grooves 10. R0- tatably mounted upon the shaft 6 adjacent to butspaced from the disk 4 on the same side as the beveled surface 9 is anidler disk 12 having a bottom hub 13. The disk 12 is rotatably mountedupon shaft 6 by means of roller bearings 14 which are force fit upon theshaft.

The spacing between the cutter disk 4 and the idler disk 12 will dependupon the amount of reduction desired. To assure a uniform reduction tothe predetermined depth the tool is adjusted by moving the cutter diskin accordance with an external gauge and thus accurately setting thedistance between the cutter disk and the idler disk which in turnaccurately predetermines the depth of reduction. The spacing need onlybe enough to allow the edge 19 of the workpiece 16 to be in contact withthe hub 13 whereby a sharp feather edge will be produced with the scarfWidth measured inwardly from the edge 19 at a. maximum. Greater spacingresults in a more blunt edge and a narrower scarf.

In operation, a shoe sole 16 or other rigid or semirigid material to bereduced is fed by hand or appropriate mechanical means to the reducingtool 2. The material is kept in contact with the tool so that the bottomsurface 17 of the margin of the sole will be in contact with theparticles 8 on the then rotating wheel 4, the sole edge 19 will be incontact with the hub 13, and the upper surface 21 of the sole will beheld down by the idler disk 12. As the sole is passed through thereducing tool 2, the particles 8 remove a portion of the margin of thesole, leaving a reduced portion or scarf 18. The radially extendinggrooves 10 are important in that when the tool is used to cut leather ora similar substance, the tool has a tendency to clog with the removedmaterial. The radial grooves allow an exhaust for the removed materialand said material will be exited by means of centrifugal force.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, the illustrative tool may well comprise all ofthe elements heretofore described but incorporating an enlarged hubportion which acts as a flywheel tending to maintain constant speed ofthe tool during heavy removal periods.

The reducing tool may well be used in conjunction with a through-feedmachine such as that disclosed in copending United States applicationSer. No. 632,046, now US. 3,435,474, filed Apr. 19, 1967 in the name ofthe present inventor. The tool is shown in FIG. 2 in conjunction with atable 20, such as that disclosed in the co-pending application. Areading of the co-pending case will show that an individual sole is fedthrough the machine by means of an automatic feeder and rollercombination and the tools are designed to move toward and away from thecenter line of the machine to follow the contours of a sole passingthereby. Appropriate guides are used to maintain the straight linemovement of the sole and to keep the sole in contact with the tool. Thistool could very easily be mounted in the same manner upon the samemachine.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent of the 'United States is:

1. A tool for providing a reduced margin of predetermined angle andwidth on a semirigid shoe sole comprising a rotatable shaft carrying afixedly mounted reducing disk and a freely mounted guide disk, thereducing disk having a particulate, abrading surface in opposing, spacedrelationship to a work engaging surface of the guide disk, the guidedisk having a sole edge engaging boss portion projecting from the workengaging surface of the same, and, at least one of said surfaces havinga frustoconical shape.

2. A tool as in claim 1 wherein the abrasive disk has a plurality ofexhausts whereby the material removed is expelled.

3. A tool as in claim 2 wherein the exhausts are radially extendinggrooves.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 888,129 5/1908 Tone 512062,993,312 7/1961 Holland et a1. 51173 X 3,122,865 3/1964 Kolling 51173OTH-ELL M. SIMPSON, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 694-39

